Amazon isn't an e-commerce company. They're a retailer, and their strategy is and always has been working toward predictive upselling. Their long-term vision is training time-poor professionals to trust Amazon to automatically make purchasing decisions for them.

You're an office worker, and you go home after a long day and the stuff you were thinking about buying is already there on your front step. And then you literally never go another store ever again.

That's what those stupid buttons were about, that's what Alexa is about. Amazon hasn't been hiding this from anybody.

So, yeah, sure, people underestimate Walmart's e-commerce operation. It's well known in the tech industry that Walmart punches above their weight in e-commerce, and they've caught up to Amazon in all of the areas that matter. Amazon's not special for being a retailer with an e-commerce platform. But at the same time, Walmart's strategy isn't even on the same map as Amazon's. They aren't even really competitors, so comparing them at all is foolish.

What stupid buttons?

In any case, they may not be directly competing for the same clients but they are competitors on some level still. If I'm being honest, the difference is probably people who have regular access to the internet, safe places to ship packages and know how to use the internet. So it's kind of a class based thing.

The question I guess is who is Wal-Mart's ecommerce appealing to if not the same people Amazon is appealing to?

Walmart’s e-commerce platform accounts for, what, something like 3% of their total revenue? Like it’s great, they’re caught up to Amazon in every technical sense that matters, but being an e-commerce platform isn’t strategic for a modern major retailer. It’s jusf what’s expected of you. It’s table stakes.

Walmart’s e-commerce platform accounts for, what, something like 3% of their total revenue? Like it’s great, they’re caught up to Amazon in every technical sense that matters, but being an e-commerce platform isn’t strategic for a modern major retailer. It’s jusf what’s expected of you. It’s table stakes.

I don't fully agree that Walmart and Amazon aren't competing. I think I realized this once Walmart stopped carrying Amazon gift cards. Like their target demographics are different but there is overlap.

You would have to be a stupid mother ****er to finance something as trivial as a phone. Just buy some cheap bull**** if you can't buy an expensive phone outright.

No wonder Apple is so loved by Wall Street, they opened up a whole new world of finance.

Don't people also implicitly do this when they buy a massively discounted phone in exchange for a hefty monthly fee that locks them into a two-year contract? They even had expensive "early-termination" fees last I checked, so that you basically are "financing" the expensive hardware by paying more every month. I.e., the carrier subsidizes the hardware.

Don't people also implicitly do this when they buy a massively discounted phone in exchange for a hefty monthly fee that locks them into a two-year contract? They even had expensive "early-termination" fees last I checked, so that you basically are "financing" the expensive hardware by paying more every month. I.e., the carrier subsidizes the hardware.

I believe so. Maybe more people do this kind of stuff than I realized. While my parents aren't perfect, they at least taught me basic home economic principles like "if you're paying monthly and it's not a service, then you're pissing away cash". Of course that's my bawdy interpretation of their words but it stands.

I guess many people haven't realized this stuff yet? I guess it's like procrastinating on your expenditures, or something. IDK it's just dumb if you internalize the economics.

I believe so. Maybe more people do this kind of stuff than I realized. While my parents aren't perfect, they at least taught me basic home economic principles like "if you're paying monthly and it's not a service, then you're pissing away cash". Of course that's my bawdy interpretation of their words but it stands.

I guess many people haven't realized this stuff yet? I guess it's like procrastinating on your expenditures, or something. IDK it's just dumb if you internalize the economics.

Sounds like they're making an investment to increase their user base.

I've got tons of acquaintances that do this kind of thing. It's a hand-to-mouth mentality. Like when you earn a lot of money and use it to lease a brand new car every (edit) year

In which Elon Musk is a genius because Tesla and SpaceX are firms with lots of vertical integration instead of using the market.

The groundbreaking brand new economic idea of the firm. lol

The title of the video is "Basic Economics" and the part I randomly skipped to at 0:35 says "Elon Musk's businesses are all centered around some of the most basic principles of economics out there. When he starts a business, he's not necessarily trying to do something new...".

I'm fully aware there are a bunch of Musk worshippers out there who think he's some genius, but is this video from one of those people?

The title of the video is "Basic Economics" and the part I randomly skipped to at 0:35 says "Elon Musk's businesses are all centered around some of the most basic principles of economics out there. When he starts a business, he's not necessarily trying to do something new...".

I'm fully aware there are a bunch of Musk worshippers out there who think he's some genius, but is this video from one of those people?

Eh he never says the word genius, just that, you know, he wants to revolutionize the world for the good of humanity crap. Might more accurate to label it with a different variety of hero worship.

I don't recommend reading it, really. It's super long, it's super old news at this point, and it's too insufferable to finish. But if you check out a bit of it, you'll definitely see what I mean about that last part. The writer has got it bad for Elon Musk.

The worst part is, despite industry marketing about safety, those computers on modern airliners are really a cost-saving measure. I'm not an aerospace engineer, but this is the explanation I've been given: Modern airliners are aerodynamically unstable to improve fuel efficiency. They require computers to correct for the instability, because otherwise normal humans couldn't fly them. They aren't using computers and software because they're better, they're using them so they can fly smaller jets more cheaply and for longer distances.

And now, as predicted, it's killing people.

And also, as predicted, Bad Orange Stuck Clock was right for a change, but insufferable contrarian libtards aren't gonna let that stop them from disagreeing.

Hey look, it seems that NR actually wrote what conservative elites were thinking all along (duh):

Originally Posted by National Review

In recent years, it’s become somewhat more fashionable to say “college isn’t for everyone,” although I notice you don’t often hear it followed by, “and that’s why I don’t want my children to go to college.” I suspect the more accurate sentiment is, “college isn’t for everyone; someone else’s kids shouldn’t bother applying, but I still think of it as the entry ticket to white-collar work, so I’m making sure my kid gets in, no matter what.”

The worst part is, despite industry marketing about safety, those computers on modern airliners are really a cost-saving measure. I'm not an aerospace engineer, but this is the explanation I've been given: Modern airliners are aerodynamically unstable to improve fuel efficiency. They require computers to correct for the instability, because otherwise normal humans couldn't fly them. They aren't using computers and software because they're better, they're using them so they can fly smaller jets more cheaply and for longer distances.

And now, as predicted, it's killing people.

And also, as predicted, Bad Orange Stuck Clock was right for a change, but insufferable contrarian libtards aren't gonna let that stop them from disagreeing.

This is actually just an assist system to help the pilot pull the nose down in cases of high angle of attack and full throttle. It wouldn't be necessary in a fly by wire system, but it is here because the 737 is hydraulic. MCAS is a bit hacky, but it's basically fine. Seems like it would have been easiest to just use a triple redundant AOA sensor, but even if it breaks, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to throttle back and disable the system.

There may be an argument that the training or user interface could have been better, but that excuse dried up after the Lion Air flight. Any Max pilot who didn't double check his manual to fully understand how to override the MCAS after Lion Air is a criminally incompetent moron.

Turns out we had another mass shooting but in New Zealand and openly racist. Targetting Muslims. I guess the killer was telling everyone to subscribe to PewDiePie. 2019 man..

And not just your garden variety racist conservative xenophobe, but full-on American History X style "White Genocide" / Fourteen Words nutcase. He even says in his "manifesto" that he doesn't even consider himself a xenophobe or a Nazi, just a supporter or his race to exclusion of others.

Pretty shocking considering that he probably killed more people in a single day than all homicides in New Zealand all last year (the Guardian said the 2017 figure for homicides in New Zealand was 35).

Anyway, it looks like a case of online radicalization, although his type were around long before they had a forum on Stormfront and the like (it was just limited to things like certain rural communities, Ron Paul newsletters and shortwave radio). The guy is an avid 8ch /pol poster, which is currently celebrating this even harder and more unrepentant than the 4chan version of /pol (where some conservatives there are at least condemning acts of violence against civilians).

This is (apparently) also what investors in tech call "strong opinions, weakly held". But perhaps it's simply the result of being at once talkative, open-minded, and enthusiastic (tips fedora).

Actually, that makes me think of a "proof" that Twitter can never lead to empathetic debate on any topic: if I revise the point of view I express by following up in a second post, what is the probability that anybody will see it and realize that I possess a spectrum of possible viewpoints (rather than tending to parrot different variations of the same fixed opinion multiple times), as the number of posts n→∞?

(Perhaps somewhat analogous to this argument, in which the author argues that as a community with members m→∞, there becomes no incentive not to be mean to people you won't likely interact with again.)

Eerily, 28 Parkland students in Florida who survived their own school shooting last year had traveled to Christchurch last July, apparently in order to help cope with their trauma and to further their anti-gun violence efforts by meeting with New Zealand’s Student Volunteer Arm.